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TACOMA 



THE CITY WITH 
A SNOW-CAPPED 

MOUNTAIN IN 
ITS DOORVARD 



PUBLISHED BY 

TACOMA COMMERCIAL CLUB 

AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

Tacoma, Washington 




Copyriphted. 1912, hy lh« Tacoma Commercial Club and Chanilicr of Commerce, Tacouja. Wash. The Text and 
Pictures in this Ixtoklet are covered by the geocral copyright, and uiusl not l>e reproduced without special permission. 






POOLE BROS CHICAGO. 




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MOUMT TACOMA MIRRORED IN SPANAWAY LAKE 

TME, STORY OF TfVGOMfV 

OF no city of the Northwest, or the entire Pacific Slope, is there relatively so little known 
as of Tacoma. The community has always been conservative, even reticent. While 
other cities have not been slow to advise the world of their achievements, Tacoma has 
been too seriously occupied in doing the work that, as a city, it has been called upon to perform 
to find time for extended publicity. The progress of Tacoma has been so rapid that the city 
has had little breath to tell the world just how swift that progress has been. 

There has come a time, howe\er, not of inaction or cessation, but of self-realization. As 
a business man, after a strenuous and successful campaign, finds it necessary to take stock, 
so Tacoma, finding itself for the moment abreast of the mighty forces that ha\-e impelletl it 
forward, is now taking an in\-entory and publishing a statement, that the world may read anti 
know what Tacoma is and what Tacoma has done. 

This publication, therefore, is issued in presentation, fully and accurately, of the facts 
concerning this city — its origin and development; its location, climate, resources, industries, 
scenic attractions, utilities, etc., with something about the country immediately tributary, and 
the larger area over which the influence of the city is felt. 

No motive of self-aggrandizement is behind this publication. There is no intent to nourish 
the pride of the community by an account of its accomjilishments. The city is but young, 
and, as gratifying as may be the attainments of its youth, it is not the past with which the city 
is concerned, except as it has made possible the present; nor yet the present, except in so far 
as it is basis of a greater future. 

This is Tacoma's book. It stands for the City. It expresses Tacoma. Cities, like people, 
are all more or less alike, and yet each possesses an individuality that distinguishes it from all 
others. The effort has been made to express that rather elusive thing which permeates the 
industrial, ci\ic and social life of the city and which constitutes the essential Tacoma. 

Many statistics and figures are found in this book; one can hardly do without them. The 
biggest part of a city is its business, and as Tacoma is a great industrial and commercial center, 
that phase of the cit)''s activities has not been neglected —rather has been underlined. But the 
vital truth has been ever kept in mind that the real s|iirit of a city is, after all, not in its 
factories, its counting houses, its marts of trade, but in its homes, its schools and churches, 
its social and ci\ic life. 

There should be no necessity of assuring the reader that all statements made herein are abso- 
lutely authentic. Requesting careful consideration, attention is asked to the pages that follow. 




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LOOKING ACROSS TACOMA'S RETAIL DISTRICT.— The retail district of Tacoma, which not so many years ago occupied Pacific Avenue two 
blocks east of C Street, now occupies C Street, illustrated above, and lllh Sireet, the main cross artery. In the right-hand corner appears the 
twelve-story Fidelity Building, one of the city's several fine new office buildings. Two of the large department stores are shown in the central 
foreground. The building on the crest of the hill, in the upper left-hand corner of the picture, is the Pierce County Courthouse. Its magnificent 
clock tower is a landmark for miles around the city. The trend of the city's retail district to a new location is characteristic of Pacific Northwest 
cities, in nearly all of which the former retail thoroughfare has given way to other forms of business. Tacoma's retail establishments are widely 
famed for their up-to-date methods and complete stocks. The newest Paris styles will be found on display in their windows within four to five days 
after the same styles are shown in New York, the difference in time being only that of fast express across the continent between the Atlantic and 
Pacific seaboards. 





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P\i;r , , . \Vi[( )[.i;s VI.C DI.STPaCT — In r.'Il. Ti.'nui's ISO jubl.iiiL'. whn!..^^:il.:- and distrihutin- e^^tablishments tran3arte<i a !)Usine3S 

tutalini: S > 1, 1 "■ I Jinii. Tins [Picture shows a part of the distrirt irora which this vast volume o! trade was directed. Tacoma's distributive business 
extends east to North Dakota, north to Nome, south to California, and southwest and west to the Hawaiian Islands and the Orient. Perhaps 
nowhere in the world is wholesale competition so keen as on Puget Sound, and by the same token there is probably no region offering the w hole- 
saler such opportunity for expansion as the territory centering at Tacoma. The opening of the Panama Canal will probably accentuate the present 
trade and the presentopportuniti(.'s to a degree difficult of comprehension Tacoma's natural trade territory, the country within a radius of 150 miles, 
comprehends a larger population, by nearly 200,000 persons, than similar trade territory of any other wholesale and jobbing 
center of the Pacific Northwest. With distributive freight rates on a parity, this difference of population gives Tacoma 
jobbers a very distinct advantage over competitors, and is one of the forces rapidly increasing the volume of the 
city's distributive business. Terminal improvements under way will afford another big incentive to the increase of this 
business, reducing still lower the cost of handling tonnage from rail to water, or vice versa, and locally. 




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THE GEOGRAPHIC CENTER OF TACOMA. — Western cities grow so rapidly it is sometimea startling to compare their appearance to that of 
two or three years preceding. The structures in the group shown above, occupying the geographic center of the city, have, with two or three exceptions, 
all been constructed within the last half decade. The tallest of them all is the National Realty Building, which is also the highest structure 
on the Pacific Coast. The two buildings on the left and right of the middle background, respectively, are the Tacoma Building and the Pc-rkins 
Building. The former is the home of the Tacoma Commercial Club and Chamber of Commerce, which occupies the entire upper two floors with 
a total floor area of 20,000 square feet. The building whose roof appears just in front of the Perkins Building is the new federal postoffice and 
customs house, completed in 1910 at a cost of S'>*'0.(JOO. In the background of the picture is given a glimpse of Taooma's famous tidcland factory 
district, and one of the commercial waterways forming an artery for the city's trans-shipment and industrial commerce. Improvements now under 
way will give this dUtrict a stiU more strikingly changed appearance within the next two years. 







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UPPER PACIIK- A\i:NrE. TACOMA —Pacific Ax . ■,,. i^ -I,, n, n f. thr..iik:t,t ,r.- ..f T i.^n,:., :,ti.l ' ; ,. . -ion of the older hotel 

and theater di>irict. The lower of the City Hall, m-cu in the baLkgruund, contains a set of chiiiiu^, thu gift ul uuc ul the cit\ 's prominent citizens 
in memory of his daughter. These chinies have been ringing so many years that without them Tacoma would hardly be Tacoma. The avenue leads 
beyond to one of the busiest sections of the city's industrial water-front. Tacoma was a leader in adopting the progressive form of City Government, 
the ruling powers now being vested in a city commission of 6ve members, elected by the pople and subject to recall. Tacoma 's streets, because of 
width and cleanIino;?s, have always been commended by visitors, and are a source of great pride to citizens. Tacoma is not only one of the best 
paved cities in the West, but in the entire United States, and its system is fre<iuently cited as the near ideal, by engineering 
magazines and authorities. Tacoma has been said to have more street-car mileage per capita than any other city in the 
United States. Whether it leads in this repect or not, it is well served in a transportation way with 12.5 miles of car lines 
radiating from a common center to all parts of the city and suburbs. Car lines pass or reach all the parks, which 
have an area exceeding 1.000 acres; and there are few residence districts where a long walk is necessary to reach a car line. 



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LOCATION 

"Man made cities, God made the country." 

In the same sense in which the author intended, it is true enough that men make cities. 
In another sense, and one quite as true, cities are made, or appointed, by the Author of all 
things, just as truly as the country. Cities are not things of chance. A city is the result of 
certain inexorable, economic laws. Locations make cities; or, at least, make cities possible; 
and men do not make locations, but utilize them. Men ha\-e tried to make cities in defiance 
of tiie law of location — and failed. 

Position is power. 

The growth of a city is usually in direct equation with that of the country tributary to it. 
The larger and richer the tributary country, the greater and more rapid the growth of the city. 
Every great producing area has a natural outlet and inlet, a trade channel, a place of barter 
and exchange. Here great cities are located. 

Puget Sound is the natural outlet for a region almost indefinitely large. Its trade connec- 
tions reach south to the Columbia River, east across the upper Columbia into the Palouse 
country, northeast far into British Columbia and Alberta. The wealth of this wonderful region 
in forests, water power, minerals and agricultural products will find treatment in other chapters. 

But if Tacoma were entirely divorced from this region of imperial wealth, still would the 
city be one of commanding power. By reason of her harbor, Tacoma is forever appointed one 
of tlie great commercial centers of the continent, and, not improbably, of the world. Here 
the jiroducts (jf the new world — lumber, wheat, flour, cotton, machinery, etc., — pass to the 
old world, and in exchange are taken tea, silks, spices, etc. And as the people of the Old World 
awaken to a greater industrial activity, demanding greater and greater commercial intercourse 
with the ijeopie of the New World, so will the number of ships in Tacoma's spacious harbor be 
multiplied. The opening of the new maritime highway to the Atlantic and all the countries 
on its shores will be a compelling factor, and the development of all the Pacific Slope, from 
Alaska to Mexico, will contribute its share to the commercial development of Tacoma. 

So much for Tacoma's location, considered primarily as the first potent reason for the 
city's greatness. The bird's-eye map to be found on the middle two pages of this booklet will 
gi\e the reader a very accurate notion of the city's more immediate site and setting. Tacoma 
occupies a peninsula, dividing two of the channels of Puget Sound. The townsite is high above 
the water level, the sliore line being a series of blufifs, notched with deep ravines. The main 
portion of the city is level, but with enough variety of contour to provide a magnificent \iew 
from nearly every point. 

To the south of Tacoma's peninsula is a vast expanse of open, park-like country called the 
Prairies. This region gives way at length to gorges and hills, rising ever and ever more steeply 
to the stupendous bulk of Mount Tacoma. 

Sir Henry Irving, a cosmo[5olite, a man of fine judgment, a man to whom the cities of the 
world were as familiar as the houses of the block in which one lives, once said: "Tacoma has 
the most beautiful situation and environment I have ever seen," and no one has ever criticised 
or even sought to dispute his opinion. 

TACOMA— THE CITY OF HOMES 

The real life of a city is not in its streets or shops or factories, but in its homes and schools. 

We get very wrong conceptions of cities. So prone are we, even the wisest, to be 
deceived by the outward show, the bigness, the wealth and all the simulacra of materialism, 
that when we enter a city and note its great buildings, its busy streets, its volume of trafific, 
its evidences of Inisiness, we say, this is the life of the city; here beats the real heart of the 
community. 

Nothing could be less true — in a real, vital sense. The city's life is in its homes; there throbs 
the real heart of the community. And so of Tacoma. Therefore is the city proud of its homes, 
and proud of all those institutions which are connected with the home — schools, churches, 
libraries, etc. 

Houses are not homes, but they are the bodies of homes. 



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"BIG STICKS" READY FOR SHIPMENT. — This picture will give the "tenderfoot" a passing fair idea of the scale on which lumber manu- 
facturing is carried on in Tacoraa. Long timbers like these are cut by Tacoma mills every day in the year, and hardly a freight train or a steamer or 
Bailing vessel leaving the port, especially if it is bound for New York or for the Panama Canal zone, but carries one to a dozen fallen giants of the 
Puget Sound forests. Indeed, the manufacture and shipment of "big sticks" — bridge "spuds." spars, flag poles, bridge timbers and the like, are 
carried on exclusively by some of the sawmills tributary to Tacoraa. While the size of the sticks, compared to that of the men standing near or on 
them, seems enormoua, they are representative of the Puget Sound country's big timbers — neither larger nor smaller, but the every-day average. 



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WAITING FOR THE SAWYER'S ATTENTION. — Like a powder magazine to a battleship, or a money vault to a bank, is its lo^ pond to a 
sawmill. If the mill happens to be located on tidewater or on a large lake, or even on a river, the "pond" is easily provided; otherwise it is necessary 
to provide it artificially, and most mills do so. Flat cars, loaded high with the logs as they come out of the woods, are hauled directly alongside the 
ponda and their ponderous loads dumped into the water. Here the logs are "rolled" and worked over bv men who became spectacularly skillful at 
8uoh work, and "skidded" up onto the sawmill decks as they are needed. A log pond. In operation, is a never-failing source of interest, both to the 
stranger unfamiliar with the many processes in lumber manufacture, and to the "old-timer" who knows the lumbering game from one end to 
the other. 



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MOUN'T TACOMA, VIEWED FI;mM ,,,,\ I |;v\|| X I l;(,\n \}'.< <\V \\Tin\V] pTT'^T^v ,. 

Government has built a road witl„n .1,.- \:M,w,,d l>,n -i.r ,m, ^liir Mnunt fV, , , , ,1 ., [ 1 ^ .r^V '' ■■■"' "' 'V' ^-'•<>-"'"'>- the Federal 

nearly 6,000 feet, yet has no grade m excess ol lour per cent. The picture above tells' its own^story. ''"°''' """"' "' "" ''''■™"»° "^ 




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THE TATOOSH MOUXTAINS.— This r,.,,-, 




^^i^.^ls?'^?'^^'^'^"'^-' The'tiew"slrom'K;.ese's Camp ^Camp of' thl^r^^'-''-^^^^ ?'-"■"?''"■"' ■' I^''^t"r'^?<J"«°«3: leading out and 



UloudsJ, a tented hotei at the anow line on the Mountain, ju.st 




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WASHIXOTOX TORREXTS. — There is romanee unlimited in the tinkle ami th-- rnur nf tlii- ~|,I. nll.l .■:it:ir;i.l. ■ .^f many leapinc from 

M'.unt T;iroma'i^ etrrnallv fr i^cn .Inmr.. Thf w:ilcrs of tlio«p torrents, emanatini; from k'laeiers, many ol which pass over copper-la. Icn rocks, are 
cut., r niilk-ulini- Willi l1:h 111 .lu-t .r :i il.rp -nr i,i-h liluc from the minerals they carry. In either case, they are indescribably licautiful. 




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?•^.\'? OF THE CLOUDS. ON MOUNT TACOMA.— This is the usual starling pomt lor p:u,i.-, a>cc,„i.„^. i., ,he ,„,„,„:,. u.,- .i.vation is 
i^f' '!k„ „ ' . ■ ? i^-o' I"*"."' '''^ '"'''■ "'"'' '*'"*' "nany persons, the favorite picture of the old mountain at close range. The triangulated height 



of the mountain is 14, ,526 feet. 




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The chief residential district of Tacoma extends out along the east side of the peninsula. 
The natural rise of the ground is enough to gi\e each tier of streets and dwellings a magnificent 
\ie\v of the Sound, with all the activity of the harbor brought into relief against the shore line, 
with the restful green of its wooded heights, and the white bulk of Mount Tacoma looming 
vast in the background. Although there is lacking in Tacoma's resident district none of the 
improvements in the way of streets, bridges, parking, etc., yet there has been retained a certain 
delightful suggestion of the wildness which existed not so many years ago. The canons which 
cut through the bluffs to the water-front exist in all their native greenery, and aid in the effect 
of naturalness, which is a pleasant relief from the monotonous uniformity so often found in 
our city streets. 

As yet the residents of the city have not found it necessary to cramp themselves in the 
matter of room, and each dwelling occupies its own grounds, with its lawn, flowers and shrubbery. 
The long, cool summers and the mild winters make it possible to grow a great variety of trees, 
shrubs and flowers, including those that are semi-tropical in their habit. Rose culture is very 
popular, and magnificent hedges or beds of roses are everywhere to be seen, blooming often 
until the holidays. English holly and other plants not successfully grown in the East are 
common in Tacoma gardens, and vegetation has a luxuriance that is remarkable. 

CLIMATE 

In the possession of a mild, equable climate, Tacoma is especially favored. 

We may jest about the weather, but, as a matter of fact, it enters into ourevery-day comfort 
and well-being far more than most of us admit. The prime characteristic of Tacoma's climate 
is its equability. The summers are delightfully cool and rainless and the winters are never 
severely cold. During June, July and August no rain falls and blankets are needed for com- 
fortable sleep. The days, on the other hand, are gloriously sunlit, warm, but never hot, with 
the tang of the salt sea ever present in the gentle breezes that blow the season through. 
Through the winter it is exceptional for the thermometer to drop below the freezing point. 
If, once or twice a year, a few moist snowfiakes fall, they are but short lived, melting almost 
as soon as they touch the ground. Flowers bloom every month of the year. The annual 
precipitation averages 4.5.4 inches. Spring arrives leisurely, without sudden changes. PVom 
June loth to September 15th there is very little, if any, rainfall. The summer temperature 
is normally below 70°. For many years the mercury is infrequently found above 80 and the 
nights are invariably cool. 

There are no electric or hail storms, no destructive winds, cyclones, blizzards, earthquakes, 
floods or violent disturbances of any kind. 

THE CITY'S GROWTH— A PAGE OF HISTORY 

The first settlers to make a home on a spot now within the limits of the City of Tacoma 
were Job Carr and his two sons, in 1864. The entire peninsula was then a virgin forest. In 
1867 Gen. Morton M. McCarver, the real founder of Tacoma, came to the region for the 
express purpose of making an investigation that would lead to the discovery of a suitable 
townsite, which should be the terminus of a possible railroad. A man of wide experience and 
trained judgment. Gen. McCarver found in the site of Tacoma one that filled all the require- 
ments he had in mind. The bay was deep, with ample shore line and with an approach through 
a broad valley without prohibitory grades. 

Forming a combination with two others, Gen. McCarver bought most of the holdings of 
Carr and others. In 1868 the first lots were sold, but the original plat, with the name 
"Commencement City" was not filed. Soon after, Anthony Carr filed a plat with the name 
Tacoma, the Indian name of the mountain. McCarver then named his townsite Tacoma City. 

Thus was Tacoma born and christened. 

The next step in the city's early development was a contest between Tacoma, Olympia, 
Stcilacoom and other settlements, each seeking to be selected terminal of the first railroad, 
the Northern Pacific. After a bitter and dramatic struggle, Tacoma won. On December 16, 
1S73, the last spike was dri\cn, the first train was checked at tidewater and the future of the 
little settlement — then of 200 i)cople — was assured. It was not until ten years later, however, 
that there was forged the last link in the railroad, giving Tacoma transcontinental connections. 







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TACOMA AS IT Wol'I.D APPEAR FROM AN AEROPLANE.— Tin- iiini— ■>-■ vi.-w of Tacoma. above, wa^ ina.lf by a pariMramic camera 
revolving through an arc of approximately ISO degrees, on the roof of the National Realty Building, the tallest structure on the Pacific Coast and 
standing in the block that forms Tacoma's geographic heart. The view, therefore, affords a good idea of the city as it appears north of a line of 
bisection running east and west through the heart of the business district. The picture is especially notable in that it combines four well-marked 
sky lines hitherto impossible of comprehending in one picture in the absence of sufficient elevation to support a camera; also, the picture affords 
an excellent idea of the substantial size of the city and the substantial character of its construction and physical equipment. In the background, 
on the right, is shown Tacoma's splendid harbor — Commencement Bay; also some of the commercial waterways leading into it. In the right fore- 
ground is given a glimpse of the industrial development that Tacoma's compelling advantages for manufacturing and distribution have brought into 
existence on the fourteen square miles of tide level lands fronting the city. On the left the camera has caught the sky line of the business district, 
and the beginning of the residence district that spreads over the hills in all directions from the water. Even at the immense elevation occupied by 
the camera, all of the magnificent residence district development north of the bisecting line could not be comprehended, but enough is given to afford 
an excellent idea of the extent of this development. The four sky lines combine in a way that affords the stranger a very happy and at the same 
time a very true idea of the manner of city that has been built on the west side of Commencement Bay, Puget Sound. It should not be inferred, 
however, that the panorama shows all of the city. Had it been possible to continue the camera on through the entire 360 degrees of its sweep, the 
result on the remaining 180 degrees of the film would have been a literal repetition of what appears above, with the addition that Mount Tacoma — 
the great pile of rock and ice and snow that gives Tacoma title of "The City with a Snow-capped Mountain in its Dooryard" — would have appeared. 




WORLD'S LONGEST WHEAT WAREHOUSES.— Reaching for more than a mile along the west bank of the City Waterway. Tacoma, pictured 
above, is a string of docks making up the longest and largest warehouse area, under continuous roof and used exclusively for wheat storage and 
trans-shipment, in the world. On one side of these docks the wheat crop of that immense producing district known commonly as Eastern Washington, 
and which finds its way to tidewater on Puget Sound, is handled from the hundreds of thousands of cars that bring it from point of origin. On the 
water side of the docks, steamers and sail carriers of all nations come alongside to load, and in so doing give literal reason and license for that pretty- 
sounding descriptive term: "Where Rails Meet Sails." When it is stated that the 1911 shipments of wheat, by water, from Tacoma, amounted 
to 4,975,977 bushels, valued at S4. 497, 419, the reason for the existence of this long string of warehouses is readily apparent. The City Waterway 
is an artificial channel through which the Puyallup River found its way to the sea until the needs of commerce called for a water highway, navigable 
by the deepest draught vessels, reaching into the business heart of the city. In fulfilling this need, the river was diverted to a channel a mile east 
and its former channel dredged, bulkheaded and lined with cargo handling facilities. The picture above was made from the deck of the old Eleventh 
Street bridge, which carried the main cross artery of the city over the water to the industrial district on the extensive flat area in front of the city, 
commonly called the tidelands. Since this picture was made, however, the bridge has been replaced by a mammoth steel and concrete structure, with 




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TIk' prIuic thai forms the front cover embollishmfiu of this book shows the other half of the city to good advantajxe. although part of the area above 
pictured is also pictured on the cover. First impressions of Tacoma. on approaching by water or by rail from the Kast, are striking, and grow in 
favor with closer acquaintance. Skyscraper rearing above skyscraper and business block rearing above business block; church spires vieing with 
church spires for honors as to highest point achieved: deciduous trees giving verdant green touch to all; below the waters of Sound and Bay; above, 
a serrated skyline against the western sky — these catch the eye and the heart of the visitor approaching for the first time, and love at first sight is 
invariably the rule. Tacoma's corporate bmits take in something over sixty-five square miles of territory, the greater portion of which is well built 
up. The fascination attaching to the hillside site on which Tacoma stands has an advantage that is especially appealing to persons accustomed to 
dwelling in a flat country. Almost every office, and quite every home, has a perpetual and unobstructed view of mountain and forest and water 
that gives a touch of romance and unique interest to workaday life, altogether lacking elsewhere. Indeed, visitors to the city, and its own people, 
as well, are lonely and possessed of the "gone" feehng when business or pleasure takes them from the panorama of Nature's wonderworks ever spread 
before them in Tacoma. They miss the water and the forests and the salt tang, and missing these, they invariably return and are content. As for 
the hills! A Puget Sound dweller would be like a fish out of water should the sites of the cities become suddenly flattened, and in that flattening 
take away the paved slopes whose ascent or descent gives exhilaration that, mayhap, in good part explains the perpetual good health and freedom 
from enervating ills best illustrated in the fact that, size considered, Tacoma, Seattle, Bellingham. Everett and the other Sound cities, have the 
lowest death rates in the world. If you like Tacoma " From an Aeroplane," you will like Tacoma still better on closer acquaintance from terra firma. 




deck carried at an elevation twenty-six feet higher above the water than the deck of its predeces^^or. and eosiiiig S4U3.UUU, paid for by a municipal 
bond issue. This increased elevation obviates necessity of opening the draw for passage of any but the very largest water carriers, and the structure 
amply accommodates the immense vehicle, pedestrian and street car traffic passing between the city's business district and its principal producing 
district. The waterway is used by the largest deep-sea carriers entering Tacoma on the seventeen regular lines operating to the port, but is used 
principally, along its upper reaches, by the immense "mosquito" fleet plying in and out of the port. A year ago Tacoma made its first experiment 
with municipal ownership of docks. A part of the wheat warehouse nearest the bridge was converted into a temporary municipal dock. The 
experiment has proved a complete success, so much so that a site with 1.200 feet frontage on the waterway, south and to the left of the temporary 
dock indicated, has been acquired, and is being improved by the city with a permanent concrete, five-story dock, the cost of which has been provided 
by municipal bond issue. This is but one of several municipal dock projects on which Tacoma is now engaged. The frontage appearing in the 
picture on the right-hand bank of the waterway is all "made" land, and is lined with industries and warehouses. With exception of the municipal 
property referred to. practically all the shipping improvements shown in the picture have been made by the railroads. The large structure on the 
bluff above the wheat warehouses is the Tacoma Hotel — a good example of western hotel development. 





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ONE OF TACOMA'S 419 MANUFACTURING PLANTS.— In 1911. industrial Tacoma. with an invested capital of 824,236.000 and employing 
10,460 operatives who earned an average of $730,550 each month thoughout the year, produced $52,768,000 worth of finished products. The 
photograph is typical of the city's factories. For many years Tacoma's chief manufactured output embraced lumber and lumber products. These 
commodities still continue in first place, but diversified manufacture is rapidly making its presence felt. Indeed, Tacoma's efforts for industrial 
upbuilding are along the lines of encouraging location of new industries and strengthening and nourishing industries already located and operating, 
whose output goes into an aggregate total representing wide diversity, and in such representation, meaning that the city is not dependent on any 
one line of manufacture for its prosperity and supporting power. One of the greatest inducements Tacoma has to offer the manufacturer, in addition 
to immense deposits of raw materials close at hand, is the saving on freight that is possible over products now shipped in from the Middle "West and 
the Atlantic sea-board. This is an incontrovertible advantage and one that eastern manufacturers are rapidly comiug to realize. So thorough is 
their realization, in fact, that thousands of them come annually, or send representatives, to investigate Puget Sound and general Pacific Coast 
conditions with a view to establishing western branches — not distributive but manufacturing. The immense savings that are possible in the freight 
item alone are an inducement that they find impossible of evasion. Tacoma is in a peculiarly advantageous position in dealing with these 
easterners searching new locations because of other advantages in the way of fuel, electric power and sites such as cannot be equaled by any other 
city on the Pacific Coast. 



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VIEW ALONG TACOMA'S INDUSTRIAL WATER-FRONT.— Tacoma's deep-water frontage is cleariy marked as between districts utilized 
for commercial purposes and those used for industry. The picture above shows a section of the industrial frontage and the development thereon. 
This industrial frontage extends for more than three miles in the lee of a bluff rising sheer out of deep water and continuing to an abrupt promontory 
at the snout of the peninsula on which Tacoma stands. The greater part of this frontage is occupied by sawmills and wood products factories. One 
of the city's princpal industries, however, occupies the far north end of the frontage. This is the Tacoma smelter, the largest smelter west of Butte. 
It is shown in the distance in the picture below. Ores from Alaska, from Idaho, Montana. Nevada, Washington, Utah, California, Wyoming, 
Colorado. Oregon, British Columbia, the west coast of South America and even the Orient, are refined in the furnaces and retorts of this great 
plant, which employs SOD operatives. Some idea of the extent of its operations will be had from the statement that its output of the precious and 
baser metals, in 1911, was valued at §11.709.480. This sum represents gold, copper, silver, lead and zinc, in the main. 
Regular lines of steamers ply between Tacoma and the gold and copper mines of Alaska, keeping replenished the mountains 
of raw ore on which the smelter feeds. A very large quantity of concentrates is brought to the plant for the final 
processes. The first unit of the smelter was erected in the early '90's, and the fires then kindled have never been allowed 
to go out. One of the tallest concrete stacks in the world has been erected on the smelter property in recent years, 
to give the furnaces adequate draught. 



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IN THE FLOrR-MILLING DISTRICT. — Taonma is the largest flour-millinE; center west of Minneapolis, and one of the principal cereal 
manufacturing points of the United States, There are ten flour, cereal and feed mills which, in 1011, produced $6,850,000 worth of finished 
products. The flour-milling plants have an average daily capacity of 2,500 to 3,000 barrels. Tacoma flours go to consumers all over the world, 
persistent, well-directed publicity having made the various brands household words in thousands of homes. The Orient is perhaps the largest 
foreign customer of the Tacoma mills, its demand affording outbound steamers and sailing vessels from Puget Sound full cargoes practically 
the year around. Indeed, the demand in 1011, from the Orient, was so heavy that two lines of steamers, whose principal American terminals are 
elsewhere on Puget Sound than Tacoma. sent practically all of their steamers to Tacoma for the major portion of their Oriental and European cargoes. 
The demand of the United States for flour, however, indicates that the time is not far distant when Tacoma mills will find it more profitable to 
dispose of their output at home than abroad. Cereal manufacture on the Pacific Coast is growing apace. Cereal mills, operated in connection 
with flouring mills, are found to be largely profitable institutions. This joint operation of plants is proving attractive to cereal manufacturers of 
the Middle West operating plants entirely detached from flour mills, and is attracting the attention of many of them to new locations and operations 
on Puget Sound. 



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THK LARGEST CAR SHOPS IN THE WEST.— Occupying 600 acres at South Tacoma are the western repair and erection ^h-p. ^f tl,. N'nrthern 
Pacific Company. All equipment on Northern Pacific lines west of Paradise, Mont., is kept in order in these shops, in v\ hicli a i;iri:e amount of 
r<»lling stock is annually erected. The shops give employment to 1,200 operatives, most of them skilled mechanics, the shops therefore having one 
of the largest payrolls, and one of the most regular, in Tacoma and the entire West. Immediately adjoining the shops is one of the two car-wheel 
plants west of Chicago. This plant is independent of the railroad company, but has a close-working agreement with it. supplying all the wheels 
needed on its lines and also the greater portion of the wheels used by other western railroads. The wheel works have recently been entirely rebuilt, 
their capacity doubled and they now give employment to over 300 operatives. The Pacific Coast repair and erection shops of the Chicago, Milwaukee 
& Puget Sound R.iilway occupy a large tract on the Milwaukee Company's tideland terminal grounds. These shops are much smaller than those 
of the Northern Pacific, having been recently established, but orders have just been given by the operating department of the 
Milwaukee system that will double their size and capacity within another year, and place them ver>' nearly on a parity with 

the Northern Pacific shops in point of capacity and number of men employed. The two shop systems make Tacoma in 

all ways the largest car repair and erection point on the North Pacific slope and, considering the rapidity with which the 
entire Northwest is developing and increasing its demands on the transcontinental carriers, it is altogether within reason 
to say that Tacoma will presently become the leader of the entire Pacific slope in this line. 






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BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF TACOMA AND VICINITY; PACIFl 

WHILE far-famed as a city of lovely homes; while a leader in the wholesale and jobbing business of the Pacific Coast; while a great wheat- 
shipping point and distributing center. Tacoma is, primarily and fundamentally, a manufacturing city, and will always continue as such. This 
for two reasons: First, within sixty miles of Tacoma over 250,000 horse-power of hydro-electric energy — the cheapest power in the world — 
is now being generated, while more than a million horse-power can be generated, as soon as demand warrants, in the streams and torrents plunging 
from the Cascade and Olympic Mountains to the sea. Seco.nd, Tacoma is nearer by forty miles than any other city of the Pacific Northwest 
to the only coking coal fields west of the Missouri River, and this coal reaches tidewater first at Tacoma. To these inalienable advantages, Tacoma 
is now adding a third, a good illustration of which appears in the foreground of the above bird's-eye view. Tacoma is constructing, at an expense of 
millions of dollars, provided by property owners and a county bond issue, an industrial waterway which will add twelve miles to the city's present 
deep-water frontage. This waterway, general location of which in relation to the city and the city's present industrial development is above shown, 
is being constructed for just one purpose, viz.: in order that Tacoma may offer manufacturers and industries seeiiing location, sites served by both 
common-user rail and deep-water shipping facilities that are at tide level and therefore possible for factory operation at minimum cartage cost, and 
that, over and above all, are held under competitive ownership. The Wapato-Hylebos waterway and its laterals open up tide-level industrial sites 
held by more than 300 different owners. When the initial reaches of the waterway are completed, therefore — and that will be before the Panama 
Canal is opened to traffic — firms and individuals seeking sites for factories on deep water may find their ideal in Tacoma, and obtain that ideal on 
terms and conditions that can only exist when owners of identically advantageous sites compete against each other in the disposition of those sites 
to the individuals and firms by whom actual usage will be made. No other city on the Pacific Coast can provide an even comparable attraction and 




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CKAN AND OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS IN THE DISTANCE. 

advantage for locatiiiK industries, because no other city on the Pacific Coast possossea a tideland area possible of development in the same way and 
under the same conditions as Taconia. This is not said in bombast nor branKadocio. but as a niallfr of cold, hard fact — fact that must compel 
attention and, in so doing, compel a mighty industrial development beyond that whicli haa already taken place in Tacoma. The bird's-eye view 
explains itself, therefore. Relation of city to harbor, of harbor to industrial district, of the city's surrounding and supporting territory to both, are 
plainly shown, and tell their own story. The four transcontinental railroada^Xorthern Pacific Railway Company, Oregon-Wusliington Railroad 
& Navigation Company (Harriman Lines), Clreat Northern Railway Company, and Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway Company — reaching 
tidewater terminals at Tacoma, are shown, with their terminals. The huge lumber mills, packing plants, iron and steel founderies, warehouses, docks 
and cargo handling facilities already in operation, call for no descriptive explanation. The bird's-eye view is of large additional interest, however, 
in that it well shows Tacoma's relation to the splendid prairie and lake district south of the city, and the natural automobile boulevard and country 
club development existing thereon; also Tacoma's relation to the more than 900 miles of close-channeled waterways, ideal for motor-boating and 
cruising, and constituting in aggregate the great inland sea known to man as Puget Sound. In all the world the motor boat enthusiast will find 
nothing to compare with the reaches of Puget Sound that begin at Tacoma and pierce west and south for miles. In all the world the golf enthusiast 
will fiud naught to compare with the gravelly prairie and lake district bordering the city's southern limit. Mount Tacoma, unfortunately, could 
not be shown by the artist from the point of view at which the bird's-eye was made. The mountain, however, is a principal in the battery of 
interest factors^vocational. industrial and recreational — that Tacoma offers to the world. Rut let it never be forgotten that it is industry which 
baa made Tacoma great and will make Tacoma still greater. 



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"THE CITY OF HOMES." — T.ong years before Tacoma had achieved riirht to any of the several distinrtive titl's timu possessed, it was far-famed 
as "The City of Homes." Tacoma people, whatever else they may be, are first and always a honu-loving and hoiuc-oivumg class. Rich and poor 
alike own their own residences or are on the way to ownership, and take unending pride in their lawns and rose gardens. The picture above ia a 
vista across the Prospect Hill residence district in the North End of the city. The district is very appropriately named, occupying as it does one 
of the highest elevations in the city, with a magnificent outlook on harbor and mountains. The streets on Prospect Hill follow no hard and fast 
survey lines, but are governed by the contour of the land. The district therefore resembles nothing so much as a splendid natural park, embellished 
by striking examples of western architectural taste and ability. 







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OF TACOMA'S RK:?1DENCE8 AND LAW N8. — Above appears a view that might be duplicated, for attractivenes and good taste, in 
red different places throughout the residence districts of Tacoma. Standing one day in the observation tower of a Tacoma mansion from 
in dear weather, one may look acrosa the entire State of Washington from Mount Baker, near the Canadian boundary, to Mount Adams and 
St. Helens, near the Oregon line, the late Sir Henry Irving remarked: "This is Utopia. I have never visited so beautiful a city, nor before 
many fine homes and lovely lawns.'* The first dwelling built in Tacoma is still standing — a huge cabin of logs — carefully cherished and 

maintiuned in as near its original condition as possible, in Point Defiance Park, one of Tacoma's favorite show places. 

From this log cabin to the mansions pictured above is a far cry, yet no city of the West has advanced more rapidly from 

the log cabin era to that of splendid mansions and cozy bungalows, than has Tacoma. The transformation has been one 

of the most interesting phases of the city's remarkable growth and prosperity. 



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TACOMA LAWN'S TAKE NATURE AS THEIR Gl'IDE.— The maiinificent residence and landscaping above pictured well illustrates the 
practice of Tacoma home owners in beautifyinj; the surroundintrs of their residences. They let Nature do moat of the designing and utilize only 
sufficient of the artificial to round out Nature's roueh mould. This residence and lawn is in one of the several residence districts where the contour 
of the land determines everything. No effort has been evaded to take the natural grades, and the areas that would have been used by home-builders 
of less taste in laying out their home sites according to harci and fast laws, have been utilized for lawns and gardens. This practice makes a little 
more work, sometimes mftch more, for the care takers, but the effect justifies the additional labor outlay. Many a text book on landscape gardening 
and architecture cites accomplishments made by Tacoma in this line as models, and the example pictured above well illustrates why. 





TACOMA HOMKS ARE BTII-T WITH AN EYE TO GOf^D TASTE.— Above is a repr.-^ : t ,-... hnme of a Tacoma citizen. It typifies 

the taste, substantial nature and success characteristic of the men who have made Tacoma a beautiful aud a progressive city. Visitors alwaj's comment 

on the exceedingly well-kept lawns, but few realize that a fine lawn is a sacred institution to the average Tacoma house holder. And there is an 

incentive for this worship, if worship it may be called, for the mild climate of Puget Sound keeps lawns fresh and green the year around, with the 

ruses blooming above them eight months out of twelve. A very larce number of Tacoma home owtiers spend much money and time in collecting and 

cultivating rare flowers and shrubs. In this hobby th*-y have an excellent guide, for one of Tacorna's parks — Wriglit Park 

— has over 1,000 different varieties of flora. With two or three exceptions, this is the largest number of distinct varieties 

found in any botanical garden or park in the United States. Many of the varieties arc semi-tropica! and the fact that 

ih<'v thrive vigorously is a yi)lendid illustration of the manner of climate found in the Puget Sound country. 



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To follow the community through the vicissitudes of its early career would trespass unduly 
upon the limited space of these pages. For thirty-fi\e years Tacoma remained the terminus of 
but one road, the Northern Pacific. Then the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway 
Company determined to extend its lines to the Pacific, and acquiring \^aluable terminal grounds 
in Tacoma, added another railroad to the city's transportation facilities. 

Next came the Oregon & Washington — then a division of the great group of railroads owned 
and controlled by the late E. H. Harriman, and including the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, 
with their connections, but now a part of the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation 
Company. Then the Great Northern pushed its lines into Tacoma, providing the city with 
four great transcontinental railroads and giving it main line connections with practically every 
great distributing or producing center in the Ihiitcd States. 

There is no disposition to quarrel with the statements that the railroads have pro\aded the 
greatest stimulus to the growth of the city. But the railroads, in establishing great terminals 
in Tacoma, were not actuated by any charitable motives. They came to Tacoma because 
Tacoma had what the railroads had to have — ample terminal grounds adjacent to an excellent 
harbor. 

Great factories, attracted by convenient sites, cheap power, nearness to raw material and 
excellence of transportation, have come to the city. As a center of distribution it has built 
up a large jobbing business. Its financial houses extend their influence to hundretls of other 
communities. Educational, fraternal and religious institutions ha\-e located there. Great 
business houses ha\"e found it con\-enient to establish their central offices at Tacoma. Unsur- 
passed scenic attractions and a genial climate are making it a great tourist center. All these 
and other factors have contributed to the wonderful development of the city. 

Tabulated figures are often meaningless, yet in this case no better evidence — concrete, 
intelligible — could be found of Tacoma's rapid expansion, than in the appended tabulation: 

Population of Tacoma in 1870 200 

18S0 720 

1890 8,560 

1900 37,714 

1910 83,743 

An increase of 120% in ten years is sufficiently large to indicate the energy and the calibre 
of the forces that are the motive power of the city's progress. 



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MANUFACTURING— POWER 

At Tacoma — the "City of a Million Horse-Power" — are combined all the requisites for the 
greatest industrial development. 

A community that produces raw material makes one profit. A community that distributes 
either the raw material or the manufactured product makes one profit. Combining these two 
functions the profits are doubled. But adding the third, the manufacturing function, the 
community preserves practically all the profits that can be made between initial production 
and final consumption. 

To a large degree, Tacoma combines these three functions. In the sense of initial production, 
of course, a city cannot properly be said to produce anything. But the timber that is felled 
in forests one hundred miles from Tacoma is owned almost entirely by citizens of Tacoma, 
transacting all their business in the city, giving Tacoma one profit in production. If the timber 
were brought to Tacoma Ijy rail and thus transferred to boat for distriljution, there would be 
two profits. When the logs are rendered into boards and building material in Tacoma, and 
shipped, the city has extracted the utmost profit from the process. The same thing is true 
of the production of grain and its manufacture and distribution as flour. Liunber and flour 
mills represent the bulk of Tacoma's manufacturing interests. 

As a matter of statistics there are 481 factories in Tacoma, 173 of which are small concerns 
producing only for local consumption. The invested capital is $21,519,600. For 1910 the 
aggregate output was $51,058,308. Employment is given to 11,357 persons, with an average 
pay roll monthly of $741,380. The value of the annual product of lumber alone is about 



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$10,000,000. Flour and manufactured cereals reach a total valuation of $8,000,000. The 
value of smelter products for one year is in excess of $10,000,000. The advantages of the 
manufacturers at Tacoma are such as to disarm competition. For all products consumed on 
the Pacific Coast or shipped abroad, there is the material saving in the elimination of freight 
charges. This advantage and the nearness to raw material, Tacoma shares with other cities 
of the coast. 

At Tacoma the manufacturer can purchase or lease a site for his plant that is perfectly 
suited to his requirements and on most reasonable terms. He can build his factory, if need be, 
with a dock on one side and a railroad on the other. He can take his raw material directly 
from the vessel and load the finished product on the cars with the least possible effort, thereby 
effecting a great economy in handling and cartage. 

TACOMA'S HARBOR— COMMERCE 

Commencement Bay pro\ides harbor room for the merchant fleets of the Nations. 

It is a matter of history that nearly all the great cities have been great because they possessed 
excellent niiiritime harbors. The greatness of Troy, Tyre, Venice, London, New York may 
be attributed directly to this fact. To gain the advantages of a harbor well adapted 
to commercial purposes, however, the city must be on the important channels of trade. It 
must be so located as to serve as the natural outlet for exports or the natural entrance for 
imports, or, preferably, for both. It is of interest to note to what degree Tacoma occupies that 
position. The requisites of a good harbor are that it be easily and safely accessible from the 
ocean, of sufficient depth, free from shoals, reefs and rocks, and with a shore line long enough 
and of the right character to facilitate loading and unloading. Tacoma's harbor, known as 
Commencement Bay, is reached from the Pacific Ocean and by an easy passage through the 
straits of Juan de Fuca and the waters of Pugct Sound. The harbor is deep, perfectly safe and 
\-isited by no severe storms whatsoever. Within the city limits of Tacoma there are fourteen 
miles of water-front on the harbor. 

The distinctive excellence of Tacoma's harbor, however, is in the fact that the land, instead 
of sloping off into the water at a slight grade, has an abrupt descent at low tide mark. By 
reason of this fact, the necessity of costly dredging, filling, piling and dock building is forever 
obviated. Tacoma's harbor was practically ready-made. Docks are constructed lengthwise 
of the water-front, and \esscls of the deepest draught come alongside for loading. 

The expensive handling of freight is reduced to a minimum cost. Here may be observed 
the rather unusual sight of commcjditics transferred directly from a railroad car to the hold 
of an ocean freighter. Or a factory may receive the raw material from a ship on one side and 
deliver it as manufactured product into a freight train on the other. 

The natural water-front is capable of almost indefinite extension by de\-eloping or building 
artificial waterways. The character of the tidelands is such that this can be done at very low 
expense. Already three miles ha\e been added in this manner, and another project — the 
W'apato — will add twelve miles. The aggregate of main line railroad tracks with terminals on 
Tacoma's tidelands is 44,948 miles. There are twenty-two water transportation companies with 
steamers making Tacoma on regular schedule. In addition there are h..ndreds of tramp steamers 
and sail carriers which enter the port of Tacoma with cargo, or for cargo, as occasion offers. 

Tacoma is connected regularly with the United Kingdom, Cicrmany, France, Italy and 
other European countries, S()u(h Africa, Fgypt, China, Ja|)an, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, 
South America, the Philipjiines, the Hawaiian Islands, Mexico, .Alaska and coastwise points. 

TACOMA AND THE COUNTRY TRIBUTARY 

Tacoma is the center of an Empire — vast in extent — of resources whose magnitude is but 
guessed at, whose develojiment has just begun. 

A village first becomes the trading point of a district described by a radius perhaps only 
a few miles in length, at the boundary of which its tributary territory is contested by other 
centers of distribution. As the \illagc grows into a city, it extends the circumference of its 
commercial zone, and the other \'illages become themselves tributary. The process may be 
continued indefinitely. Commercially, St. Louis commands the Mississippi Valley; Chicago, 
the entire West; New York, in a sense, the whole country. 



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A FOREST OF MASTS ON TACOMA'S WATER FRONT.— This is a familiar scene along Tacoma's industrial water front and may be 
reproduced almost any day in the year at any one of half a dozen tidewater manufacturing plants. The vessels here shown are loading for points 
aa widely scattered as Deiagoa Bay, on the southeastern coast of Africa, and Sydney, New South Wales. A very large number of cargoes are taken 
for ports on the west coast of South America, and there are always from one to a dozen schooners tied up at Tacoma wharves, taking lumber for 
Southern California and Hawaii. Indeed, the greater number of the sailing vessels coming to the port of Tacoma and to other Puget Sound porta 
as well, come for lumber. Second only to the lumber fleet is the wheat fleet which plies mainly in trade with the United Kingdom. Tacoma lumber 
docks are fitted with electric cranes and tramways and other modern appliances for the rapid loading of cargoes at minimum cost. To the visitor 
on Puget Sound, who was born and has always lived in the interior, the forest of masts commonly found at Tacoma wharves, and the bustling, 
bustling activities going on beneath this "forest," is of never-ending interest and wonder. Tacomans themselves never tire of visiting their water 
front and watching the ships that go down to the sea. A sunny summer morning will find the "front" transformed into a board-walk promenade, 
not aa fashionable possibly aa Atlantic City's, but quite every bit aa interesting. 




FLEET OF "WHITE WINGS" AT A\CH(.)K IN TACnMA'S HAHH(.)K.— This is another familiar scene in Tacoma's harbor and one that 
is always interesting, even fascinating, to visitors and citizens alike. The fleet shown comprises, in the main, sailing vessels — "white wings" — in 
the wheat and lumber fleets, waiting opportunity to shift to loading berths, or with cargoes completed and ready for their long voyages. Of late 
years Tacoma, in common with other Pacific Coast porta, is not visited by as many sailing vessels aa in "the good old days" before all-conquering 
steam became the dominating motive force in water commerce. Ship yards are no longer building "windjammers" because there is no use 
for them as of yore, and in this change there rests dearth of material for the sea lore and romance that gave picturesque touch to any seaport when 
commerce depended on the winds of heaven. Steamers, able to move iniiependently of tugs; able to load cargo and unload it with power from 
within rather than dependence for power from without, as in the case of the sailers, slip in and out of the port without more than passing comment. 
And in their dominance of commerce, its volume is increasing by leaps and bounds, but the "old salt" yarns that once gave fascination to the 
merchant marine are rapidly passing. This "decadence in romance," as the marine editor of a Tacuma newspaper once 
phrased it, does not entirely lack a substitute, for the big steamers very frequently bring splendid tales of adventure and 
hardship, of storm and human interest. The picture above illustrates forcibly the great size of Tacoma's harbor, of which 
it has been said: "The navies of the world could anchor here and there would still be room for a good half of the 
merchant marine." The harbor is almost entirely land-locked, and atorms are quite unknown. 




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ONE REASON FOR TACOMA'S MARINE COMMERCE.— The pictures on thia page serve two purposes. They illustrate, in striking manner, 
the harbor developments and activities of the preaent-day Tacoma; and they emphasize with equal emphasis the reason for such development and 
activity. It has been a favorite claim in Tacoma that Commencement Bay, as the harbor is known, could furnish anchorage for all the navies of 
the world and have room left over for half the merchant marine. This is, of course, exaggerated, for the simple reason that a good half of the bay 
is too deep to afford safe anchorage ground. The assertion serves merely — and well — in emphasizing the harbor's extent. Every city on Pugot 
Sound, and, for that matter, every city on the Pacific Coast, has boasted proudly that its own harbor was ample for the world's fighting craft. The 
claims are not disputable, but there is one salient feature which places Tacoma's harbor above comparison with any other harbor on the Pacific: 
The tide level lands abutting Commencement Bay break abruptly at the water's edge. Instead of reaching out beyond the low tide level for hundreds 
of feet in the form of a bench, as they do in other Pacific harbors, they shelve off into deep water immediately at the low tide mark. This reversal 
of the geological law that has prevailed in the other harbors, gives Tacoma an incomparable advantage, for the reason that wharves and docks 
do not have to be carried over a tideland bench on piling or expensively made fill. They are built on solid land, lengthwise to the natural water 




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frontage. and thr d>-'P'-t ilr:ni::lit v.--i,-ts afloat can come dir-'iMly alMn-sui'' inr l.^n.inm'. And it is principally because iniiial cost of wharf instruction 
is comparatively so small and the item of maintenance and upkeep so nearly negligible, that the longest wheat warehouses in the world, as shown 
in the picture above, reach for more than a mile along Tacoma's water front. By the same token. Tacoma's water front is unlike any other Pacific 
Coast water front. All the docks stand parallel to the frontage — and the frontage amounts in all to fourteen miles, with twelve miles more being 
artificially created by waterway construction, and provision made fur a total of forty miles when future business demands. It is anticipated that 
with the opening of the Panama Canal, or v«-ry soon thereafter, all seaports on the Pacific Coast will have call for increased dockage. And while Tacoma 
is bending harbor improvement efforts in behalf of waterways and wharfage suitable to the needs of industry, and that will be factors in the creation of 
tonuace rather than in its storage and trans-shipment, the city is prepared for any calls that may come for additional docks. Ample sites have been 
acquired by the municipality and notice given to the shipping world that, on sixty days' notice, additional docks, wharves, cranes and other cargo 
handling facilities to meet both ordinary and extraordinary demands, can be prepared. Tacoma is ready, from the dock stand- 
point, for the opening of the Panama Canal. In the picture at the top of the page appears a Government vessel — the fnited 
States cable ship " Burnsiile." taking on a cargo. Tacoma is the storage point for the cable used in maintaining and 
extending communication under the sea with .Alaska, and for cable used in maintaining the fire control systems that connect 
the various artillery forts guarding the entrance to Puget Sound, to the Columbia River and to Wallapa and Gray's Harbors. 







23 






TACOMA'S " NEW GATEWAY TO THE ORIENT." — Typical of the cargo handlins development on Tacoma'a harbor is the above panoramic 
view of the western terminals of one of the newest American transcontinental lines and the American terminus of one of the latest foreign steamship 
companies, owned and with headquarters in the new Orient, to enter into a traffic alliance with an American rail system. This terminal has been 
created within the past three years and is but the first unit of a development being made to care for the immense and weekly increasing trade between 
and through Tacoma and the Far East. Three years ago the clams spurted where these great warehouses now stand and duck hunters shot at 
their winged targets from blinds on the sites of the buildings when the tide was out. To the right of the grain elevator and wheat warehouse, a 
long industrial waterway is now being dredged as the basis for production of further tonnage to be handled by these terminals and the terminals 
operated by other of the great transcontinental lines of Tacoma's harbor. Plans for additional docks, larger than those shown and adjoining them, 
are being prepared and the opening of the Panama Canal will probably see these structures completed. Berthed in the thirty-five foot channel, 



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ONE OF TACOMA'S MANY BIG SAWMILLS. — The panorama above illustrates one of the largest of the many large sawmills in Tacoma. 
Lumber manufacture, together with the manufacture of wood products, is of great importance among the industrial operations of the city 
and of the Puget Sound country. Tacoma has for years been one of the principal lumber producing centers of the world, the cut for 1911 
amounting to 500.000,000 feet, being valued at §7,000,000. The mill shown below is in reality two mills, and does both a rail and cargo business, 
its ocean dock, equipped with electric cranes and every other known appurtenance for the quick and economical handling of lumber, appearing in 
the far background, being on the open roadstead and connected to the millyards by an electric tramway. The State of Washington, with the State 
of Oregon and the Canadian province of British Columbia, comprise the last great timbered region on the American Continent. The standing timber 
of these three districts, despite the fact that logging and lumber manufacturing operations have been in progress over forty years arc, as yet. hardly 
"scratched." The following figures, showing the amount of standing timber in Washington alone, in 1911, are the best proof of this statement: 
Total timber stand of State, 195,237,000,000 feet, board measure, divided between the various species common to the region as follows: Red fir, 




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specially dredged for the terminal shown above, is one of six ocean leviathans especially built for operation across the Paci6c in connection with the 
terminal, and in the foreground appears a lumber loading gridiron from which millions of feet of Douglas fir, spruce and hemlock are taken by carrier, 
using the terminal. The wheat warehouse and elevator on the right bank of the channel supplement the wheat warehouses owned and operated by 
other transcontinental carriers in other parts of the harbor. The terminal illustrated here, however, is used principally in the Oriental trade, and its 
outlook on the harbor and open roadstead therefore makes it the city's " New Gateway to the Orient." Through this new gateway and the gateway 
which was built twenty years earlier, there passed, outbound in 1911, merchandise and commodities valued at $().0t>'J,073. This figure comprehends 
the value of merchandise that went to the Orient only. The total business passing out. to all ports foreign, was valued at $12,744,250, and to domestic 
ports $13,155,378. or a total export business from the port valued at $25,899,628. The total import business was valued at $21,566,089, whence it 
will be seen that the grand total water commerce for 1911 amounted in value to $47,465,717. 




90.593,000,000 fpot; hemlock. 40.571.000 feet; yellow pin.-. 13,082.000 feet; ambili^ fir, 8.788.000.000 feet; spruce 8,221,000.000 feet; larch, 4.776.000,000 
feet; white fir, 1,780.000,01)0 feet; other species, 4,780,000.000 feel. Tacoma ships lumber to all parts of the worhi, the principal water shipments 
gotDK to Australia, California, the Orient and the \\'est Coast of South America. Vast quantities of lumber cut in Tacoma mills or mills near Tacoma, 
and especially "bic slicks" have been shipped to the Panama Canal zone for use in construction of the canal, and when that highway is opened, 
shipments by water lo the Atlantic coast of the United States will undoubtedly be very large. Water shipments of lumber from Tacoma, foreign 
and domestic, in 1911, amounted to 165,653.231 feet. Some idea of the size of the mill below pictured will be afforded by the fact that 1,200 men 
are employed when the plant is running at normal capacity. This mill occupies the heart of Tacoma's tideland industrial district, and was built 
about twenty-five years ago, at a time when the site it occupies had little or no intrinsic value. As evidencing the enormous increase in property 
values that the past few years have brought to Tacoma in common with Pacific Coast cities, may be mentioned the sale of thirty acres in the site 
of this mill to a railroad company for tenninals. The railroad paid $600,000 for the bare ground and figured that the land was cheap at the price. 




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In this process of expansion, the growing city eventually loses its intimate contact with the 
country on its borders: but Tacoma, by reason of its very youthfulness, yet maintains 
its intercourse with the districts on its environs. As Pierce County, in which Tacoma is located, 
is mountainous, it follows that agriculture is confined largely to the valleys, although there are 
areas of bench or table-lands that are \-ery productive, and the near-by islands of the Sound are 
perfectly suited to certain products. 

The valleys in which the culti\'ation of the soil has reached its highest stages are the 
Puyallup, Stuck, White, Ohop, Muck and Clover. The soil in these valleys is of volcanic 
origin, decomposed basalt and volcanic ash, mixed with alluvial silt, and is extremely fertile. 
This productivity, in connection with the proximity of an excellent market, has created a 
condition in which intensive farming is practised with the most gratifying results. Potatoes, 
onions, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, rhubarb and all vegetables and garden truck are grown 
with pronounced success, and returns of crops of this character run from -SlOO to SG.dO an acre. 
Berries of all kinds do remarkably well. The strawljcrry, logan berry, black and red rasp- 
berry and gooseberry are all very prolific and of exceptionally fine quality. The revenue from 
one acre of berries is often in excess of $500. 

In one district in which the berry industry has been most highly developed, the Fruit 
Growers' Association for 1911 shipped 62,471 crates of raspberries, 28,935 crates of blackberries, 
and canned in tins 443,902 pounds of the former and 1,063,339 pounds of the latter. They 
ha\e a standing offer to pay growers 3^ cents a pound for all the berries they can produce. 

THE SCENIC ATTIL\CTIONS OF WHICH TACOMA IS THE CENTER 

Within a compass of seventy-five miles of Tacoma, Nature presents herself in a greater 
variety of delightful and wonderful aspects than within an equal radius measured from any 
city in the world. 

That statement may arouse surprise or evoke denial. But it is absolutely true, and has 
been affirmed by tourists to whom the scenic regions of the world are as familiar as a book 
that has been studied. It would almost seem as if the forces of Nature had spent themselves 
in creating this land of titanic mountains, glaciers, cataracts and canons, supplemented by 
the inexhaustible delights of Puget Sound. Here the nature lover can fill his soul to the brim 
with beauties and marvels, of which, perhaps, he has but dreamed. And the wonder of it is 
that the experience is possible without hardship or extraordinary eff^ort, and with the greatest 
economy of time and expense. In these days of abbreviated vacations and accelerated living, 
considerations of this kind are worth mentioning. 

Lest there be any who misunderstand, it might be well to say that on the maps Mount 
Tacoma is given the name "Rainier," having been so called in 1792 by Baron \'ancouver, after 
his friend Admiral Peter Rainier, who fought against the American Colonies in the War of the 
Re\olution. By all the Indians of this section the mountain was called Tacoma, Tahoma or 
Tachobet, the difference being merely that of tribal pronimciation. 

Vancou\er, an alien, merely sighting the mountain and taking only compass bearings, 
named the great dome Rainier, in compliment to a man at one time hostile to Americans. 
The aborigines, occupying the land immemorially, and worshiping the mountain, knew it 
as Tacoma, and by that name it was called by the first white men to approach it. The name 
is significant; it has patriotic associations, whereas that of Rainier, if it suggests anything at all, 
can be looked upon only as a misnomer which always needs an apology. 

Under any name, however, the mountain is of a majesty and an immensity that fairly 
shame the dispute as to what name it shall bear. Its height, 14,532 feet, is the more 
remarkal)le that it rises practically from tidewater, whereas other mountains, approximating 
it in absolute altitude, are in reality but inferior peaks borne on the shoulders of great mountain 
ranges. Expressing it differently: nearly all of Mount Tacoma's measured height is compre- 
hended within the mountain itself, whereas other inland mountains, from base to summit, 
measure but a few thousand feet, yet, measured from sea level, are almost as high as Tacoma. 
Tacoma, too, is of immense bulk, its area at 4,000 feet being 300 square miles. In conformation 
it is a dome, its original apex destroyed by some ancient explosion, and its rock-ribbed sides 
monstrously carv^ed and worn by glacial action. 




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praine >>i uuiquu character and unusual attractiveness as the three views on this page serve, in a measure. 



THi: MOTORISTS 

for nearly forty miles, is a tirt. . ., . . . 

to indicate. The soil — a coarse gravel, despite the fact that it produces bumper vegetable and fruit crops — acts as a natural drain, and the surface 

is .always dry and firm. This natural condition — one of the many with which the Creator h.as endowed the Puget .Sound country and Tacoma — 

has made possible the establishment of a great, natural boulevard system, embracing more than 300 miles of absolutely perfect highway, without 

the expenditure of one cent for either construction or maintenance. Here and there huge bluffs r'se sheer from the surface of the prairie, heavily 

timbered and mirroring themselves in the lovely lakes that dot the landscape. Here and there are copses of gnarled oaks, while the broad-reaching 

level expanses between the timbered heights are natural parks, marvelous in the native beauty of a new-springing forest, so young as yet that it 

resembles a thousand crisply green Christmas trees, or a hundred Central Parks, any one of them capable of ensconcing a dozen of Manhattan's 




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hiiae to base of the tiiubcruJ bliitTs or pickiun ita way Ijctwucn tliu timbL-r cup:icd auJ n;ituru.l parka tu iillariii;^ rt-Liche^ alonR the hike ^h^res. 
Motoring at its best has not been enjoyed by those who have never toured over this boulevard system. A thousand drives there are that may 
be taken, yet no two are alike. And the equable climate and natural maintenance of the system make possible the enjoyment of these drives from 
Januan,' to December. Another phase of interest offered on the prairies is the country club life and golfinc rourses. developed to a high deRree of 
excellence. The prairies are ideal for RolfinE, and the sport is actively pursued the year around. The country club life is perfect and possible of 
unlimited extension. The present development is in all ways equal to that of any of the country clubs maintained near the Rreat cities of the East. 
DurinK the summer of 1912 there were staRed on these prairies the Brst automobile road races of consequence witnessed in the Pacific Northwest. 
\ five-mile course was prepared, with a grand stand from which 20.000 persons viewed the partiripatinc cars over practically every foot of 
the course. The world's greatest drivers entered these races, the prizes amounting to $2J.0UO. Raciug e.\pert3 who have gone over the course 
pronounce it in all ways the finest dirt track on the American continent. 



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Not only is Mount Tacoma the grandest of America's mountains, but it is easily the most 
accessible. Starting from the city of Tacoma the \usitor can go to the snout of a li\"ing 
glacier in an automobile, a trip of seventy miles. 

This journey is without a parallel in the world, no matter where the tourist and the sight-seer 
may go. High-powered, seven-passenger automobiles of the most luxurious type are operated 
on regular daily schedule between Tacoma and the mountain throughout the summer season. 
Nowhere else on earth may the tourist enter a palatial motor car at tidewater and, four hours 
later, find himself or herself at the line of eternal snows, after a spin over a perfect boulevard 
every foot of the way. 

The first stage of the trip is o\"er the great natural prairie boulevard system already described, 
a fitting entrance to so grand a domain. Thence the road enters the rugged outlands of the 
distant mountain, climbing steadily, but never steeply, through a country that, except for 
occasional clearings, is heavily wooded. For mile after mile the road passes through the 
solitudes of giant forest, with trees si.x, eight and ten feet in diameter, their lofty heads towering 
150 feet towards the sky. One especially thrilling stage of the ride is the long ascent up the 
Nisqually Caiion, where the road clings desperately to the precipitous wall, while hundreds 
of feet below the Nisqually roars through its rocky channel. 

At seventy miles from the city the entrance to the National Park is reached — a huge 
gateway of mammoth logs, with a rustic lodge where each visitor is registered. For miles 
beyond the road penetrates the forest, occasionally crossing a foaming torrent whose milky 
whiteness is evidence of its nearness to glacial origin. 

The road, by the way, has passed around the mountain so that the final approach is from the 
south. At "Longmires" a con\'enient and comfortable stopping place is found. Near the site 
of old Longmire homestead — for long the only refuge on the mountain, and still hospitably 
open to guests — has been erected a modern hostelry, complete in all its appointments, where 
the creature comforts and e\-en the luxuries are pro\ided for the mountaineer. 

Twelve miles further, by a mountain road that turns and twists like a wounded snake, the 
snout of the Nisqually Glacier is reached. An experience ne\-er to be forgotten — that first sight 
of the glacier — its icy wall hundreds of feet high, and from a cavernous orifice the river leaping 
as if from mad delight at its release from the prison of ice! 

Beyond this point the road leads, mounting higher and higher into the clouds, but never 
on a greater than four per cent grade, to lovely Paradise Valley. On the way is Gap Point, 
a coign of vantage affording an inspiring view of mountainous panorama, range upon range 
piled up in chaotic grandeur. Further on is Narada Falls — where Paradise Ri\er leaps into 
an abyss 175 feet deep. Paradise Valley is one of the many amphitheatres hewn out of the 
mountain side, where most of the mountain phenomena may be observed without arduous 
effort. From it the surface of Nisqually glacier may be reached and the cre\'asses, moraines 
and the mysteries of glacial action may be inspected. 

Alta Vista is a viewpoint which marks the highest altitude reached by many. In fact, it is 
quite possible to form an intimate acquaintance with the mountain and enjoy the wonderful 
exhilaration that only the mountaineer can know, without attempting to scale the snowy 
summit. The ascent, however, is not too difficult for men and women of average strength. 
With proper equipment and under the direction of competent guides the trip to the summit is 
made in one day and is the ultimate attainment in mountain climbing. 

Unique among the bodies of water of the world is the inland sea, Puget Sound. Connected 
with the Pacific by the narrow strait of Juan de Fuca, the Sound expands into broad areas of 
water that divide and subdivide in arms and inlets, channels and narrows, so that the Sound 
becomes a watery labyrinth, 900 miles of close-channeled waterways in all, dotted with islands 
innumerable, and fascinating in the very irregularity of its outlines. _ The shores are heavily 
wooded and for the most part rise steeply from the water's edge without swamp or shallow. 
For cruising about in pleasure craft of any description — canoe, sail boat or motor boat— the 
Sound offers endless delights; while for camping out, it would be difficult to imagine conditions 
more perfectly suited. For summer outings — camping, fishing, hunting, picnicking, the ideal 
summer weather is an important factor. With the possibility of rain and storm entirely 
eliminated, and with an assurance of fine, clear weather, without excessive heat, the pleasant- 
ness of an outing on the Sound is multiplied. 






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TWO VIEWS OF TACOMA'S GREAT STADIUM. — One of the "seven wonders" of Tacoma, of the West, indeed, of the entire United States, 
is the Stadium of which two views are given on this page. The lower picture shows the field of the huge structure animated by several thousand 
school children during one of the numerous fiestas that are sta^ed upon it. The picture also gives au idoa of the magnificent view on the waters of 
Puget Sound opening from any seat in the structure The picture at the top of the page was taken when Theodore Roosevelt was addressing an 
audience of 40,000 persons seated within and massed above the structure. On several occasions 60.000 persons have witnessed events on the great 
field of this unique amphitheater. There are twenty-nine miles of concrete seat tiers in the structure, with a comfortable seating capacity for 







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35,000 persons at one time. The Stadium w.\s built by popular subscription at a cost of $l:!.'>.000, and follows the contour of a monster ravine 
surmounted at its inner bend by Tacoma's masniticent High School building, which is the structure towerint; above the seat circle in the picture at 
the top of the pase. The Stadium w.is built primarily for the use of the public schools, but was found, soon after its completion, to be far more 
than a school institution. Indeed, the Stadium is an institution of all Tacoma, and all citizens of the city share equally in possession of it and credit 
for its construction. The Hit-h School Buildinc, which is the largest structure used exclusively for Hifh School purposes 
west of Chicaso, is one of the West's best and most strikins examples of Gothic architecture. Of the Stadium Theodore 
Koosevelt said, on -Vpril (>. inil: "I know of nothine like it. nothiuK on this side of the water and nnthina abroad. 
In builfling it Tacoma has tlone something that must have a very marked effect upon all the ofh'-r eines in the Union." 




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RESIDENCE STREET VISTA, SHOWING TREATMENT OF PARKINGS.— The parking of a Tacoma lawn is as carefully maintained 
and as zealously cherished aa the lawn itself. The pictures on this page afford an excellent idea of the effect and result. One may drive for hours 
over Taeoraa's eighty miles of paved streets — incidentally the greatest mileage of hard-surfaced streets possessed by any city of corresponding size 
in the United States, and practically all of it made within the last seven years — without finding an unkept curb line. And on most of the 200-odd 
miles of streets that are not paved, the grass will be found close-cropped and perpetually green all the way to the gutter. Xor do Tacomans stop 
with merely well-grassed parkings. They spend dollars and time in planting rose bushes and other landscaping flora on the parkings, and take 
unending pride in bringing the parking shrubs into the same prolific bearing and fragrance as any other shrubs on their premises. One result is 
that on many streets, during the spring and summer, one may stroll as through a huge park, with fragrance and rint of color on either side and 
stretching away in the distance. The street department of the city spends thousands of dollars annually co-operating with home owners in the 
"city beautiful" work. In this co-operation rests explanation of Tacoma's reputation as a city of scrupulously clean streets. Visitors are always 
impressed bj' the immaculate cleanliness of the city's hard-surfaced thoroughfares, in the business district, as well as in the residence district. 




A SUCCESSION OF ROSE LOVERS' HOMES. — The immense value to Puget Sound cities of an always alert Rose Society has good evidence 
in the picture above. Almost every Tacoman loves and grows roses. The source of inspiration rests in the fact that the Puget Sound climate and 
soil are ideal for rose culture, producing larger blooms, better-colored blooms and longer-lasting blooms than any other soil and climate in the world. 
But experience has demonstrated that without a guiding hand, and an always active organization, rose culture confines itself to a few "cranks." 
A real live Rose Society serves to keep interest on the qui vive and the Tacoma Rose Society, embracing hundreds of the most prominent and 
influential business and professional men and women of the city, has no peers anywhere, either in activity or accomplishment. Through the Rose 
Society's efforts, millions of rose cuttings are systematically distributed throughout the city each year. The humblest laborer may obtain slips 
and young bushes of the choicest and rarest varieties, at absolutely no cost, and in any quantity he can care for. Free advice is given by an expert 
rosearian. employed and paid by the Rose Society, on how to grow roses and how to avoid failure in growing them. Every June the largest 
auditorium in the city is transformed, for a week, into a bower of fragrance and indescribable beauty. At this rose show any citizen of the city 
may enter his blooms, and the prizes and praises are governed solely by the excellence of the flowers — not by the individual 
from whose garden or lawn they chance to come. In July of each year, during the Montamara Festo, Tacoma gets very 
excited over a competitive floral parade in which the artistic and decorative genius of the entire city takes part, while 
the general public watches a pageant that neither words nor pictures can reproduce in all its beauty. 




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HOME OF THE TACOMA COUNTRY AND GOLF CLUB. — On page 27 will be found three views taken on the immense gravelly prairie and fresh 
water lake district beginning at the southerly limits of Tacoma and extending south the lenirth of two ordinary counties. These views were taken 
in the vicinity of the splendid clubhouse of the Tacoma Country and Golf Club above illustrated, and serve to indicate, as best pictures may 
indicate, the interest-impelling character of the cluljhouse environments. Nowhere in the East, even in the immediate vicinity of New York or 
Philadelphia or Boston, will be found a country club development superior to that of the Tacoma Country and Golf Club, and this development in 
contra-distinction to that near the eastern cities, is possible of almost limitless extension. The Puget Sound climate is, of course, a large 
determining factor to this development, for it allows the pounding of gold balls or the chasing of the annia bag from January to December. Indeed, 
wh'-n the gentle rains of late autumn begin, more knickerbocker-clad enthusiasts will be seen pursuing their seemingly endless course over the links 
than in the sunniest days to be conjured, for no rain falls during June, July and August, yet it is never more than comfortably warm. Golf and 
riding to hounds are all-the-year-around institutions in Tacoma's country club life, and visitors are always loathe to leave after once tasting the 
pleasures that abound. The clubhouse above is the center of but one of the developments on this prairie and along the lakes that dot its surface. 





THE COUNTRY ESTATE OF ONE TACOMA BUSINESS MAN. — The picture above is a vista across the formal gardens of the countr>' 
estate of one Tacoma business man. who prefers the prairie and the lakes to the Sound, as a setting. This mansion stands on the shores of 
American Lake, the largest body of water in the prairie district, and represents an investment which goes to indicate that successful eastern business 
men have no advantage over the successful business men of Puget Sound when it comes to ta.-*te in country homes and ability to carry out those 
tastes. On the opposite shore of American Lake from this estate, is a popular and beautifully kept picnic ground, served by electric lines from the 
city and surrounded by cottages and many more pretentious residences. A very large number of Taeomaus, who prefer fresh-water environments 
to salt, spend their summers around this lake, closing up their town houses and living in the glorious out-of-doors. It cannot be said, in truth, 
that the lakes and prairies have more summer dwellers than the beaches and coves. Those who prefer golf and the chase will be found there, but, 
as a matter of fact, it is "nip and tuck" between the s.alt water and the fresh water be.aches for popularity. Thus far in the history of the Puget 
Sound country, the country estate development has not been in any manner as extensive, proportionately, as in the East and Middle \Vcst. The 
equable climate, for one thing, with the summers free from enervating heat, does not render a country place so imperative 
to those who can afford it as in the eastern section of the country. And then, of course, the population in the cities 
ij nnt so nrnwdnd as tn tn:tke liff during thf summer well-nigh unbearable unless one may escape to the cool and quiet 

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A private pleasure craft is by no means necessary, however, to visit the many places of 
interest that the Sound has to offer. Starting from Tacoma, enjoyable journeys may be taken 
to Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, and to Ballard, Seattle, Olympia, Bellingham, 
Anacortes, Everett, and other cities in Washington. These trips are made in modern 
steamboats of the best type and will provide a delightful holiday that may be extended 
almost indefinitely. The tourist will find the hotel accommodations all that could be desired 
and need anticipate no unusual discomfort or inconvenience. 

The whole Olympic peninsula is a wilderness upon which but few traces of civilization are 
to be found, but which possesses the irresistible lure of Nature in her more savage moods. To 
the west, seventy miles from Tacoma, is the Pacific Ocean, with its beaches, bathing and 
delightful summer resorts. 

In fact it is hardly possible for one to go in any direction from Tacoma without entering 
a territory that is essentially picturesque. It has been possible merely to outline or suggest 
the principal features. There are beautiful mountain lakes to be visited, rivers to be followed, 
waterfalls to be marveled at, forests to be explored. Not in one season, or in many, can the 
nature lover exhaust the interest of this region. 

Nor is there lack of game to reward the hunter, nor of fish to feel the fisherman's creel. 
Pheasant, both the native and Mongolian, grouse, mallard, teal and geese are still plentiful. 
If fur be sought instead of feathers, there are black-tail deer, bear, and in the Olympics, elk 
and a few mountain goat. 

Both salt and fresh water fishing invite the fisherman. In the waters of the Sound there 
are salmon, salmon trout, tom cod, rock cod, sole, flounder, etc. There are also clams of a 
number of different varieties, crabs and other shell fish to be captured. In the many mountain 
streams near Tacoma there is excellent trout fishing, and trout and bass are to be found in most 
of the mountain lakes. 

OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST 

Portland — Metropolis of Oregon. Located on Columbia Rix-er, 160 miles south of Tacoma. 
Center of great and rich agricultural district. Starting point of hundreds of miles of enchanting 
ri\er scenery. 

Seattle — Located on seven hills rising out of Puget Sound, twenty-eight miles north of 
Tacoma. A hustling, progressive, aggressive municipality, thoroughly reflecting the spirit 
of the West. 

Victoria — Capital of British Columliia. Located at south end of Vancouver Island, 112 
miles north of Tacoma. Center of splendid tourist hotel and harbor development. Home 
of many of Canada's wealthiest citizens. 

Vancouver— Metropolis of Western Canada. Located on Burrard Inlet, 177 miles north of 
Tacoma. A rapidly growing rail and water terminal. Center of immense resource developments 
now under way in Western Canada. 

Alaska — A region of wonderful scenic beauty, reached after a 
water journey, preferably by what is called the "inside passage" 
route, and like no other water journey on earth. Comfortable 
steamers leave Tacoma and other Puget Sound ports for Alaska 
on regular schedule. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

For bulletins on Manufacturing, Commerce, Residential 
Advantages, Agriculture, Stock Raising, Dairying, etc., or for 
elaborately illustrated booklets dealing comprehensi\ely with 
Tacoma, address Department M, Tacoma Commercial Club and 
Chamber of Commerce, Tacoma, Wash. 







32 





Mt)r\T TACOMA — THE CROWNIXCi (JLOIIV OF THE WEST.— Nowhere else in the world, save in Tacoma, may one enter a comfortable, 
high-power automobile at ti<iewater, and, four hours later, be at the line of eternal snows; and this journey all the way over perfect roads, never 
once on a grade greater than four per cent. Tlie picture in the upper right-hand corner is the view that will greet the travele. on this unique 
journey when lie reaches the snow line on Mount Tacoma. The great stream of ice in the foreground is the Nisqually Glacier. Automobiles go 
to the \er.\- snout of this frozen river and the traveler may look upon the face of a wall of solid ice three hundred feet high. The picture at the 





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f the page is a view of the niouiitaiii. fruui oik; of the dozens of alluring natural parks that lie between the glacial moraine.-" ou all aides 
ik. The park shown in the picture is called Indian Henry's Hunting Ground, in honor of an aboriginal chieftain who was once its sovereign 
In the upper left corner is a view of a tremendous crevasse in the Little C'owhtz Glacier. Mount Tacoma is the only great snow- 
capped peak on the American Continent that may bo safely and easily scaled by the amateur. Hundreds make the 
ascent each year, although the greater number prefer to travel comfortably to the snow-line and content themselves 
with a climb over the lower ice and snow fields. The upper left-hand corner picture illustrates a more daring climber 
enjoying one of the fascinating thrills that may be bad by those who go to the summit. 



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